Hypernuclei Production by K- at rest

TL;DR

This paper reviews the production of hypernuclei via K- at rest, highlighting new experimental measurements that analyze formation probabilities and binding energies across different atomic mass numbers, advancing understanding of hypernuclear creation.

Contribution

It presents new experimental data from FINUDA on hypernuclei formation as a function of atomic mass, enabling disentanglement of various nuclear effects influencing hypernuclei production.

Findings

First study of hypernuclei formation probability across multiple A values.

Disentanglement of atomic wave-function effects from nuclear potential influences.

New measurements improve understanding of hypernuclear states and formation mechanisms.

Abstract

The creation of a hypernucleus requires the injection of strangeness into the nucleus. This is possible in different ways, mainly using pi+ or K- beams on fixed targets. A review of hypernuclei production by K- at rest is here presented. When a K- stops inside a nucleus it can undergo the so called "strangeness-exchange reaction", in which a neutron is replaced by a Lambda with the emission of a pion. By precisely studying the outgoing pions both the binding energy and the formation probability of the hypernuclei can be measured. New measurements from the FINUDA experiment on 7Li, 9Be, 13C and 16O, coupled with previous measurements on 12C and 16O, allowed for the first time the study of the formation of hypernuclei as a function of the atomic mass number A. The new measurements also offered the possibility of disentangling the effects due to atomic wave-function of the captured K- from those due to the pion optical nuclear potential and from those due to the specific hypernuclear states. These new results on the study of the hypernuclei production by K- at rest are here presented and discussed.